Blizzard nerf Hearthstone’s Mage: “We understand that the Freeze mechanic can be frustrating”

If you’re making a competitive multiplayer game, I imagine you come to accept that every day you’ll be informed, in matter-of-fact terms, that each and every class is overpowered and also underpowered; that every item needs its stats knocking both one way and the other; that everything you’ve attempted to accomplish has come to naught, your game is irrecoverably broken, and you should pack it in to be a postman.

Sometimes, though, the players are right. In this case, Hearthstone’s Mage really did need nerfing.

Cone of Cold now costs four points of mana rather than three, and Frost Nova three instead of two. And in a tweak that seems somehow self-deprecating, the area-of-effect Blizzard spell which freezes opponents solid has had its mana cost raised from five to six.

Hearthstone’s spell system sees an extra mana point become available in each of the first ten turns of a match – so these changes will push back the availability of the Mage’s more powerful attacks until later in the game.

“We understand that the Freeze mechanic can be frustrating to play against,” explained Blizzard, “and we wanted to make changes that would allow the Mage’s opponent some additional time to be aggressive with their minions [as] well as slow the overall pacing of the control-based Mage play style.”

For the time being, the amount of dust granted to players for disenchanting Blizzard and Cone of Cold cards has been increased – to equal the amount it would have cost to craft them.

Elsewhere in yesterday’s patch, Blizzard squashed a bug that saw players unable to re-enter the Arena if they closed the game client before collecting their rewards. Is that something you lot have picked up on?

I’ve been meaning to return to Hearthstone since our first beta impressions in September. It was glorious then. How’s it changed since?